Opinion page editor Rick Holmes and other writers blog about national politics and issues. Holmes & Co. is a Blog for Independent Minds, a place for a free-flowing discussion of policy, news and opinion. This blog is the online cousin of the Opinion
...

Opinion page editor Rick Holmes and other writers blog about national politics and issues. Holmes & Co. is a Blog for Independent Minds, a place for a free-flowing discussion of policy, news and opinion. This blog is the online cousin of the Opinion section of the MetroWest Daily News in Framingham, Mass. As such, our focus starts there and spreads to include Massachusetts, the nation and the world. Since successful blogs create communities of readers and writers, we hope the \x34& Co.\x34 will also come to include you.

Obama says that Obamacare seems to be up and running, confusing the webpage with the program. Current indicators confirm that insurance is being acquired by the very sick and the very poor, but not the demographic grouping of young and healthy that the program needs. The insurance industry is making it very clear that if the program doesn’t balance out the risk, they’ll be out of this so fast it will make your head spin. What Obamcare is, essentially, is another promising welfare program that will haunt our children and grandchildren forever.

Meanwhile, Obamacare took another hit from another direction yesterday–Detroit. The Detroit bankruptcy confirmed a point that Rick was arguing against all last week–when is a benefit not compensation? Well, it was confirmed yesterday that federal law trumps not only state law but state constitutional law, meaning that employers are now free to axe their health insurance programs, and to contest any right of Congress to tax them for that right. Thanks to Obama, 80% of all Americans could now lose their health insurance.

And then there is the brewing new scandal–when is a non-profit really an illegal political pressure group. Doubts are already being raised by a curious non-profit located in Washington D.C. called Enroll America, which ostensibly aims to inform young people about health insurance options, but seems clearly designed to save Obama’s political bacon. Look for congressional hearings on who funds this organization and other “non-profits” like it. Where, one wonders, is the IRS in scrutinizing this new political non-profit hybrid?